New Curriculum Standard English 5-3 The Story of an African Farm (3 Books in Total)

Author:〔British〕Shelina
Publisher:
Publishing Time:2004-06-01
Features:This is a graded reading series of world literary classics published for students whose first language is not English. The series is closely aligned with the requirements of the new "English Curriculum Standards," divided into 8 levels based on difficulty, catering to the reading needs of students at all stages and helping them achieve the cultivation goals of the new curriculum standards in terms of language skills, language knowledge, learning strategies, and cultural awareness. The series has the following main features: It includes classic Western literary works, helping students improve their language level while allowing them to glimpse the full picture of literary masterpieces through reading simplified versions suitable for their foreign language proficiency. According to the new curriculum standards, the vocabulary ranges from 150 to 3,500 words, meeting the reading needs of primary and secondary school students. The language difficulty gradually increases, helping teachers expand students' language knowledge and cultural background information, and enhancing students' English reading skills. Levels 1 to 5 include one exercise per page, with a large volume of practice and a rich variety of test question types, which is beneficial for students and teachers to assess and evaluate reading ability and level in a quantifiable way, making it a good supplement to classroom teaching. The language is simple, vivid, and authentic, published with English annotations, which preserves the original flavor of English while the bilingual annotations (Chinese-English) eliminate language barriers for readers, fully engaging their reading interest and making English reading easier.
Shelina (1855-1920) was a South African female writer born to a poor German servant family in Cape Town. She gained extensive knowledge through self-study. In 1883, she published the autobiographical novel "The Story of an African Farm" under the pseudonym Laura Ewen. This book depicts the lives of three children on an African estate, exposing the constraints of religious doctrine on children's minds, combating the discrimination against women by social traditions, and expressing the idea of gender equality. Her novel "Peter Hellket of Mashonaland" published in 1879 exposed and criticized the brutal suppression by British colonial forces against defenseless local South Africans. In 1889, Shelina returned to Africa. When the Boer War broke out in 1899, Shelina was expelled from Johannesburg and placed under house arrest in a desolate village. There, she wrote the political treatise "Women and Labour," exploring the roots of women's unequal treatment from the perspective of social and economic development. Additionally, she wrote the novels "The Water Witch" and "Between People," as well as other works.